The Power Of Peripheral Vision | Awakening Tools

[00:07:05] So one of the things I did for a long time, [00:09:68] that I learned from the Toltec tradition was practice wider peripheral awareness. [00:17:86] Okay? And it's a fairly simple premise. [00:27:54] The premise is, [00:30:30] if you're in peripheral awareness, [00:32:41] so you're seeing... What does that mean? [00:34:54] You're seeing as wide as you can, [00:37:37] and as high as you can, a full arc, as much as you can observe at once, [00:43:75] and maybe soften your gaze a little bit, so you then you don't start honing in on various objects and going, "Oh, [00:50:56] nice color paint," or, "Ooh, nice pot. That pot, why is that there like that?" etcetera, etcetera. It helps reduce that. [00:59:36] Because what happens is is like, you're flooding your tonal, which is a Toltec word for the moving aspect of reality, [01:08:18] or the moving aspect. And [01:12:15] the thing of form, [01:14:25] is called, they call it the tonal, yeah, I guess tone. [01:18:41] So tonal. And it floods your [01:22:98] CPU [01:25:15] with the tonal. [01:28:10] Taking in a lot of data. There's something moving there, something moving there, that's over there, that's over there. You can also hear things. [01:34:25] And it's filled with the reality of now [01:38:52] at such a level that it's very hard for the mind to think at the same time. Then if you also combine that with say pinching your thumb, [01:44:57] maybe crossing your toes or two other actions, [01:48:38] simple actions, [01:51:26] you flood your tonal so much with data. There's so much data coming in, instead of being a telescope, you've only got a tiny, what's that hook doing on the, I'm just saying. [02:01:25] Why is that hook there? I wonder why they did that? Oh, that's clever, that's not clever. Blah blah blah blah. Oh, isn't that a beautiful sunset? Oh, the sun is amazing, it's gonna spins around the earth, blah, blah, blah. [02:12:65] Depending on what era you're in, right? [02:17:75] And so it starts to cut out all that and it's a meditation technique, no, obviously, because now more silence is coming for, or more silence will so you can test it for yourself. [02:27:50] It might take a little while to practice. But one thing I read quite a while ago [02:31:69] is the studies have shown, I think it was a study, but don't quote me, [02:35:86] that some of the widest peripheral vision in our society are school teachers. [02:45:51] Why? [02:47:91] 'Cause you got half a dozen rat bags behind you trying to play games all the time. [02:51:85] Apparently they you learn to sort of... apparently, I'm not sure if it's true, but you learn to start watching, having eyes coming out the back of your head. [03:02:18] Uh, anyway, just thought I'd share that. That was funny. [03:06:05] So see if it's true or not. That helps you quieten up, see. [03:14:87] It helps your silence. [03:19:15] And it worked. I practice. I don't recommend, one thing I really don't recommend doing, doing it in any particular dangerous situation like driving, [03:26:86] or anything like that. Later on you can, but I say that and then people go out and do it driving and [03:31:73] they find out they're doing 40 in an 80 and stuff like that and just... [03:38:09] oh man! [03:44:48] So yeah, just do it in safe, 'cause it's a practice and, and it's a bit lumpy and bumpy at the start and it takes some time, took quite a while of doing it before it just went, click. One day it just, [03:54:21] it was almost like a click, just *pop* and and then it became normal. [03:58:65] It was just that's, and it just stopped, it stayed there, it didn't go away. [04:03:13] Unless I'm doing something that requires attention on that point, it stays peripheral, so you can see each side of you all the time. [04:14:38] Does it make sense? [04:15:68] And it's wonderful. It's part of the wonder of it all, 'cause you're seeing so much in every moment that you, why would you [04:20:80] sit there blah, blah, blah with your mind when all this is going on? [04:24:32] You know, just as an example. [04:28:34] Why would you do that? [04:30:31] It starts, it's not like it's as much sense anymore. [04:35:46] 'Cause you're start getting used to something that's much nicer, [04:39:56] quieter. [04:41:27] And then your, your default is going to be leaned towards what you like more. [04:45:66] So it's a way of hacking. [04:48:58] It's a hack, in a way. [04:50:86] Shortcut. [04:53:11] Because people that are extremely good at athletics and even perhaps business, [04:58:53] maybe, maybe not. [05:01:46] But at martial artists, that's where I first learned it, in martial arts, and that it was actually something. [05:12:00] And people that wake up, or or deep meditators... I'm not so sure about deep meditators, some will, some won't, but some of the people that wake up, that's the vision you have, so why not [05:20:12] start working on that, [05:22:98] as well. [05:24:60] Normalize that. [05:26:50] So that's not another shock to the system when things open up. [05:32:00] Yet another shock. Oh. [05:34:42] Because the visual's 80%, right? So you can have that already down, or be working on it and get used to it. [05:39:46] Just like you have to get used to silence and stillness. [05:44:31] Because it's a shock to the system if you're noisy and you can't hold it because the noise is a dominating feature of your psyche. [05:58:36] The silence will be too shocking, [06:00:84] or the intensity of it and the, and the, and the shift. [06:05:46] Pull back in again.

• Peripheral Awareness
  A state of Direct Seeing where the visual field is intentionally expanded to its maximum, flooding the cognitive system with data to interrupt the internal monologue.
• The Mitoté (The Fog)
  The incessant internal noise of the mind; the fog of judgments, labels, and stories that obscures the direct perception of reality. It is the primary source of suffering.
• Flooding the Tonal
  An Inner Engineering technique. Overwhelming the mind's data-processing capacity (the tonal) with sensory input, making it impossible for the Committee to generate thought.
• Tonal
  A Toltec term for the aspect of reality composed of form and movement. It is the organized, perceivable world that the ego-structures constantly try to interpret.
• Direct Seeing
  Perception free from the filter of the Committee's commentary. It is seeing what is, factually, without the overlay of personal history, agreements, or judgments.
• Pattern Interruption
  A skillful means used to break the hypnotic loop of a conditioned mental or emotional habit, such as using peripheral vision to stop the pattern of overthinking.
• Inner Engineering
  The technical, systematic process of deconstructing the mind's faulty patterns (ego-structures) to facilitate the cessation of suffering and allow for Direct Realization.
• The Committee
  The collection of internalized voices, beliefs, and judgments (ego-structures) that form the internal monologue and dictate one's perceived reality.
• The Direct Path
  The non-linear, non-gradual approach to Self-Realization that cuts through spiritual seeking by pointing directly to the ever-present reality of the 'I AM'.
• Cessation of Suffering
  The primary goal and result of Inner Engineering; the end of the psychological turmoil caused by identification with the Mitoté and its victim-judge dynamics.